Growing up at McHugh

Tallis made a lot of progress growing up while we spent the summer at McHugh. It was there that he learned to pull himself up to standing and to climb (and descend) stairs. I really appreciated that the RV only had two stairs, a large landing, and another two stairs, so no falls were too dramatic. He could play and experiment without me having a heart attack.


Since he started crawling only 6 days before we moved into the RV, he honed his crawling skills there, too. One of his favorite games was to play in the tunnel under the bed - when the bed was unmade and the covers hung down, he had a very cool fort between the covers and the base of the bed. I'm actually jealous, because that would've been cool to play in when I was a kid, too! I loved to call his name when he was exploring under there and hear him laugh and crawl over to the end and stick his head out with the biggest, happiest grin you could imagine. "Hi Mom! This is SO COOL!"

One day we gave Tallis dancing lessons - even now he still doesn't have all his moves down, but this was his first attempt:

One developmental stage I enjoyed watching was when he learned to use household items as they are intended to be used. Instead of a phone being a hammer or a teether, it became, voilá, a phone! Cool! Same with hairbrushes and spoons and other common items we take for granted.


I don't remember the day or circumstance around this photo, but isn't it cute? Courtney must've been cooking, because I'm sitting on my rear while Tallis is wearing Courtney's chef's hat and READY to help! He's a very good helper, actually, and has some of his greatest fun being useful. Moving wet clothes from the washer to the dryer and dry clothes from the dryer to the basket is the most fun, as is mopping the floor, dusting, putting away dishes and utensils, throwing things in the wastebasket (usually something we want him to throw away - but sometimes keys or pens or other wanted things!), getting diapers and wipes out of the cabinet, putting toys away, etc. I'm not even exaggerating. He's a very helpful little guy to have around!

Household items, kitchen items in particular, are the most fun to play with. (He gets bored with his own toys!) He gets pretty much free rein with pots and pans, measuring cups and spoons, lids, and the like. My lower cabinets are purposely kept free of non-baby-friendly stuff.

Why is this photo in here? Just so that I don't feel like I'm deceiving you into thinking that Tallis is ALWAYS happy and helpful.... (most of the time he is, though!)

This cute kid grew up A LOT over the summer!